Description
The mitochondrial superoxide dismutase (SOD2) is a major antioxidant protein which detoxifies superoxide anion radicals generated by mitochondrial respiration (Weisiger and Fridovich, J. Biol. Chem. 1973). We designed a model of oxidative stress-induced anemia caused by SOD2-deficiency (Friedman et al. J. Exp. Med. 2001). Our previous work showed that mice reconstituted with SOD2-deficient hematopoietic stem cells develop an anemia with striking similarity to human sideroblastic anemia (SA) (Friedman et al. Blood 2004; Martin et al. Exp Hematol 2005). Our overall goal was to define early events in the pathogenesis of SOD2-deficiency SA and, in particular, to identify genes involved in the response of erythroid progenitors to oxidative stress. We compared gene expression of sorted TER-119+ CD71+ erythroblasts from SOD2-/- ('KO') versus Sod2+/+ ('WT') hematopoietic stem cell recipients using cDNA microarrays.